FIPRESCI Selection at CineFest

12th Jameson CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival
11-20 September, 2015.

The 12th Jameson CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival officialy started on September 11 with the opening ceremony at which Claudia Cardinale accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award. This year, the CineFest honours the 90th anniversary of the International Federation of Film Critics: the Festival will screen a selection of former FIPRESCI prize winners and also a FIPRESCI conference has been organised on film criticism.

The Jameson CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival is the only Hungarian film festival at which a FIPRESCI jury, i.e. The International Federation of Film Critics, awards feature films. FIPRESCI has 55 member states, including Hungary, and it gives out prizes at more than 70 film festivals. This year FIPRESCI celebrates its 90th anniversary. Several festivals have honoured this occasion: FIPRESCI film programmes were organised at the Bari International Film Festival and at the Istanbul International Film Festival. CineFest joins this international programme by screening three films which have  been previously awarded the FIPRESCI prize.

The Romanian film “Everybody in Our Family” by Radu Jude won the FIPRESCI award at CineFest two years ago. The hero of the story, Marius, is a divorced man in his late thirties. His five year-old daughter Sofia lives with her mother. On the day Marius arrives to take his daughter on their annual holiday, he is told that she is ill, but he doesn’t believe it and insists on taking her with him. The situation soon gets out of control with all the family taking part in a web of humour, violence.

The Austrian-Swiss co-production “Benny’s video” won the FIPRESCI prize at the European Film Academy in 1993. It was the first major prize of the director, Michael Haneke. In the leading roles we can see Arno Frisch, Angela Winkler and Ulrich Mühe. The film is about a 14-year-old video enthusiast is so caught up in film fantasy that he can no longer relate to the real world, to such an extent that he commits murder and records an on-camera confession.

The selection would not have been complete without the Hungarian film “Son of Saul”, one of the greatest international hits of 2015. Besides being a huge success at several international festivals, the film has also won the Grand Prix in Cannes. “Son of Saul” is about Saul Ausländer, a member of the Sonderkommando. The group was forced to work at collecting and disposing of the bodies of gas chamber victims. One day Saul finds the body of a boy he takes for his son. From this day, instead of focusing on escape, he commits himself to another impossible mission: he wants to salvage the body from the flames and find a rabbi to arrange a clandestine burial.

Alongside the selection of FIPRESCI award winning films the Festival has also organised a FIPRESCI conference. Hungarian and international members of FIPRESCI discussed the present and future of film criticism.

Jameson CineFest – 12th International Film Festival Miskolc: www.cinefest.hu